Digital selector carriage for printing machine or other registering devices



Feb. 28, 1967 H. w. WAGEMANN 3 ,39,535

7 DIGITAL SELECTOR CARRIAGE FOR PRINTING MACHINE OR OTHER REGISTERING DEVICES Original Filed Sept.

21, 1960 5 Sheets$'heet 1 INVENTOR. HEINRlCH W WAGEMANN ATTQRNEY Feb. 28. 19$? w W G NN 3,306,535

DIGITAL SELECTOR CARRIAGE FOR PRINTING MACHINE OR OTHER REGISTERING DEVICES 21 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Sept.

INVENTOR. HEINRICH VV. WAGE MANN FIG. 4

AT TOR NEY Feb. 28, 1967 MACHINE OR OTHER 21, 1960 Original Filed Sept.

==a=== mun H. W. W DIGITAL SELECTOR c =9 Dunnumd AGEMANN ARRIAGE FOR PRINTING REGI STERING DEVICES aakmsam ==w==a *5 n m M 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR.

HEINRICH W. WAGEMANN ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,306,535 DIGITAL SELECTOR CARRIAGE FOR PRINTING MACHINE OR OTHER REGISTERING DEVICES Heinrich W. Wagemann, West Orange, N..l., assignor to Monroe International Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Original application Sept. 21, 1960, Ser. No. 57,498, now Patent No. 3,139,169, dated Sept. 21, 1960. Divided and this application Mar. 13, 1964, Ser. No. 357,001

6 Claims. (Cl. 235-60) This application is a division of copending patent application Serial No. 57,498 filed September 21, 1960, now Patent No. 3,139,169 granted June 30, 1964.

This invention pertains to printing machines. More particularly it relates to such machines of the type used in data processing operations.

One object of the invention is the provision of a novel solenoid-controlled read-out printing device.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a novel shift control mechanism for a shiftable carriage, for example, an escapable pin carriage.

The above and other objects, features, and advantages will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary top plan view of the front portion of the printing machine in which the invention is embodied.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view taken on line IIII of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a sectional front elevation taken on line III-III of FIG. 4, showing the solenoid-operated pin carriage.

FIG. 4 is a right side elevational view in section taken on line IV-IV of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a top plan View of the solenoid-actuated setting mechanism for the pin carriage, taken on line VV of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a detailed front elevational view of a portion of the pin carriage escapement mechanism, taken on line VI-VI of FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a top plan sectional View of the pin carriage, taken on line VII-VII of FIG. 4.

As described in detail in the aforementioned Patent No. 3,139,169, of which the present application is a division, the entire-machine includes a holder for a card or other record sheet upon which printing is to be effected. The holder is so constructed and controlled as to selectively place any desired line of the sheet in position to receive the printing impressions.

The information to be printed on the card by the type wheels of the printing mechanism is controlled by a solenoid actuated pin carriage 8 (FIG. 2). The solenoids 11 (FIG. 1) for operating the pin carriage are operated in response to signals sent from any suitable information transmitting device (not shown) for which the machine of the present invention serves as a printing read-out. The information transmitting device may, for example, be a computer, calculating machine, punch card interpreter, etc. It will be, of course, understood that the particular nature of the information transmitting device is immaterial to and forms no part of the present invention. The instant machine and such information transmitting device are connected together by an electrical control cable 12.

After the pins of the pin carriage have been set and the card holder adjusted to the selected line position, a cycle of motor operation of the machine is initiated. During the cycle, actuator racks 13 (FIGS. 2, 4) for the printing type wheels will be moved differentially, as limited by the set pins of the pin carriage, to set the type wheels in accordance with information to be printed.

The type wheels are then operated to print out the value which has been previously set up on the pin carriage. Following printing, the various mechanisms of the instant machine are normalized and the cycle of motor op eration thereupon terminated.

Read-in and printing The digital information to be printed on a card or record sheet is transmitted to the instant machine in the form of electrical signals which control the operation of the solenoid operated pin carriage 8. After the digital information has been set up on the pin carriage, a power cycle of operation of the printing mechanism of the machine is initiated in the manner described in said Patent No. 3,139,169. In this power cycle the ordinal series of differentially movable racks 13 move from a normal or home position to an operated position determined by the setting of the pin carriage. In conventional fashion the differential excursion of the racks controls differential setting of the series of type wheels of the printing mechanisms which are then fired to print the transmitted information on the record sheet.

The printing mechanism and the pin carriage for controlling it can be of any suitable well-known design used in ten-key adding and calculating machines. In the preferred embodiment of the invention disclosed herein, I prefer to employ the pin carriage and printing mechanism disclosed in detail in my copending patent application Serial No. 819,174 filed June 9, 1959, now patent No. 3,057,549 granted October 9, 1962, to which reference is hereby made for further disclosure of details of structure and operation.

Pin carriage and solenoid operating mechanism therefor- The pin carriage 8 (FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 6, 7) comprises rigidly interconnected upper and lower framing plates 150, 151. Mounted in the upper plate are ordinally arranged columns of digit pins 152 each of which is normally raised to the inactive position shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 but is adapted to be set by being depressed. The pin carriage is slidably mounted for movement in an ordinal direction on guide rails 153, 154, and normally lies in the rightmost ordinal position shown in FIG. 3. In this position, the leftmost column of pins 152 lies underneath and in vertical alignment with a column of depending projections or noses 155a (FIGS. 3, 4) of a plurality of substantially U-shaped bails 155. Any one pin of the column of pins lying directly beneath the depending noses 155a of the bails 155 is adapted to be set in response to downward movement of the corresponding bail. Alternate ones of the bails 155 extend to the left and right respectively of the single aligned column formed by the noses 155a of all the bails. The outer depending arms of the leftwardly and rightwardly extending bails are guided for vertical sliding movement in slots of fixed angle members 156 and 157 respectively. The inner arms 15512 of the .bails 155 are, as best seen in FIG. 3, somewhat wider than the outer arms and lie one behind the other in congruent relation. The upper portions of said inner arms 155b are formed with a series of aligned vertical elongated slots 158 by which said arms are slidably guided on a fixed shaft 160 for vertical movement. The horizontal right portions of the bails are guided for movement by slotted comb-like angle members 161, 162 similar to members 156, 157.

At their lower ends the aforesaid inner arms 155b terminate in the depending operating noses 155a for the pins 152. Compression springs 163 and 164 acting on the outer arms of the bails bias the bails upwardly to the unoperated position of FIG. 3. Each of the bails is adapted to be operated by a corresponding one of the plurality of solenoids 11, each solenoid armature 165 being pivotally coupled to the related bail. For this purpose, rigid with each armature 165 is an upwardly opening yoke 165a through which the horizontal arm of the bail extends, the two being coupled by a pivot pin 166. As best seen in FIGS. 1 and 5, the solenoids 11 are disposed in side by side pairs, the two solenoids of each pair lying directly behind one another, adjacent pairs being staggered so that the solenoid armatures are all offset from one another in a fore and aft direction by equal distances. The solenoids which operate the leftwardly extending bails lie to the left of the central, aligned row of inner bail arms 155b, and the solenoids which operate the rightwardly extending bails are disposed to the opposite side of said row.

The above-described arrangement makes for a compact grouping of the solenoids and has the further important advantage of allowing the pin setting bails 155 actuated thereby all to be identical in shape and to be planar, i.e., flat and devoid of any offsets or bends, whereby the fabricating costs of the bails is considerably reduced.

Each pair of solenoids is secured to a base plate 167 by a channel-shaped bracket 170 (FIGS. 3, 5). A slot 171 is provided in plate 167, through which the operating noses 155a have access to the underlying row of pins 152.

'It will be understood that to set up a desired value in the column of the pin carriage which then underlies the row of setting noses 155a, the associated solenoid 11 is energized. This will cause the related bail 155 to be pulled downwardly against the urging of its springs 163, 164 whereby the related pin 152 of the pin carriage 8 is pushed downwardly by the nose 155a of the bail to set position. Subsequently, the set pins will be effective to control excursion of the actuating racks 13 for the printing mechanism by acting as stops in conjunction with a shoulder 172 formed at the front end of each rack. The pins are yieldably detented in both their upper unset and lower set positions by conventional cooperating crimped detent members 168 made of spring material.

Escapement of pin carriage As is conventional in pin carriage operation, in response to entry of each digit into the pin carriage 8 the latter is escaped one order to the left to bring the adjacent righthand column of pins thereof into position underlying the single column of setting noses 155a of the bails 155, whereby the next digit can be set up on the pin carriage.

The pin carriage includes an ordinally arranged row of escapement pins 173 which lie forwardly of the columns of digit pins 152, there being an escapement pin in line with and corresponding to each column of digit pins. The escapement pins normally are disposed in upward unoperated position as seen in FIG. 2. In this position, the pin 173 corresponding to the column of digit pins which is then disposed underneath the row of setting noses 155a engages the upper end of a cooperable stop member 174 carried by the fixed framing of the machine, thereby blocking the pin carriage against movement toward the left. The pin carriage is urged in this direction by a normally charged tension spring 175 (FIGS. 4, 7) acting on a bell crank 176 pivoted at 177 on the fixed framing. The forwardly extending arm 176a of the bell crank is pivotally coupled to the right-hand end of a link 180, the other end of the link being pivotally coupled to the left-hand ,side of the pin carriage by means of a pin 181. Spring 175 applies a clockwise bias to bell crank 176, which is applied as a leftward thrust to the pin carriage 8 through link 180.

The pin carriage is allowed to escape one order to the left upon the setting up of each digit in the pin carriage, as follows. An elongated arm 182 (FIGS. 1, 3-6), is pivotally mounted on a longitudinally extending shaft 183 to the left of the leftmost pair of solenoids 11. Arm 182 extends toward the right and terminates adjacent the aligned row of inner arms 15512 of bails 155. The righthand free end of arm 182 includes a depending tail 182a which overlies the row of escapement pins 173. More particularly, tail 182a overlies the one escapement pin 173 which is aligned with the column of digit pins 152 lying directly beneath the noses 155a of the bails. It will be recalled that it is this one pin, in cooperation with stop member 174, which currently prevents the pin carriage from escaping to the left.

At the upper end of their depending noses 155a (FIG.- 3), each of the inner bail arms 155b is formed with a pair of oppositely directed shoulders 184. Secured to arm 182 at the upper end of tail 182a is a single elongated rearwardly extending pin 1821) which underlies the left shoulders 184 of all the bails. Pin 18212 is urged upward into yieldable engagement with the shoulders 184 by spring 185 connected to arm 182. It will be seen therefore that when any one of the bails 155 is pulled downwardly by its associated solenoid 11 to set the related pin of the underlying row of digit pins 152, arm 182 will be forced downwardly therewith and will depress the aligned escapement pin 173 whereby the lower forwardly extending projection 173a of the latter will be removed from engagement with the pin carriage stop member 1174.

However, the downward movement of arm 182 which causes depression of the aforesaid escapement pin 173 is also effective to position an auxiliary blocking member in the path of one of a series of ordinarily arranged escapement teeth 186 on the pin carriage. This auxiliary blocking member comprises a blocking lug 187a formed at the left-hand free end of a lever arm 187 which is journalled for rocking movement at its right-hand end. A forward offset 190 of arm 182 extends into a slotted arcuate portion 187b of lever 187 so that when arm 182 is swung downwardly in response to operation of one of the digital pin setting 'bails 155, it will cause downward movement of lever 187 to place lug 187a in blocking relation with one of the pin carriage escapement teeth 186. Upon deenergization of the solenoid 11 which has just been operated to set one of the digit pins 152, the above described components will the spring restored upwardly to their normal unoperated positions, disengaging lug 187a from the escapement rack teeth 186 whereby the pin carriage will shift one order to the left as controlled by the next rightmost escapernent pin 173 coming into engagement with stop member 174.

The above described operations which involve controlling the escapement of the pin carriage are repeated In response to successive energization of the various solenoids 11 to enter the digits of a plural digit value into the pin carriage. The timing of the transmission of successlve information pulses to the solenoids can be controlled wholly by their source provided the interval between pulses is of sufficient duration to allow the aforedescribed setting mechanism for the digit pins and escapement control mechanism to operate between successive pulses. In such an arrangement, the stop member 174 which is abutted by the leftmost unset escapement pin 173 can be fixed relative to the body of the instant machine.

There will now be described, however, suitable escapement control mechanism which includes a switch or equivalent element operated in response to the escapement of the pin carriage one order to the left. Operation of this switch can be employed in any well-known manner to delay the transmission of the next pulse to thesolenoids to insure that the pin carriage has been prope rl y stepped one order to the left and is therefore in po srtron to receivethe next digit. To this end, the aforesaid blocking shoulder 174 is provided on a slide 191 having slots 191a by which it is mounted on pins 192 for limited longitudinal movement relative to the fixed framing. Slide 191 is normally held in its leftmost position shown in FIG. 17 by the leftmost undepressed escapement pin 173 abutting the cooperable shoulder 174 of the slide. In this regard, it will be recalled that the pin carriage is normally biased for movement toward the left.

Mounted adjacent the left-hand end of slide 1191 is a conventional two position switch 193 having an actuator portion 193a which is lightly spring biased toward the "right but which is normally held in its left position by slide 191. When the escapement pin 173 is depressed in the first phase of the escapement operation, its disengagement from slide 191 allows the switch actuator 193a (and slide 191) to move to the right whereby switch 193 assumes the other of its positions. In the second and final phase of the escapement operation, i.e., when blocking lug 187a is disengaged from the escapement rack 186, the leftward shifting movement of the pin carriage will cause the next rightmost escapement pin 173which is undepressed-to restore slide 191 to the left thereby restoring switch 193 to its original condition. The step of shifting movement of the slide, and therefore of the pin carriage, is limited by the end walls of the slide slots 191a engaging the pins 192 upon which the slide is mounted.

The above-described cycle of operation of switch 193 under the control of slide 191 can be employed in any conventional fashion, as by gating techniques, to control the signal source and prevent the next digital signal from being transmitted to the solenoids 11 until the switch has been operated by the leftward return movement of the slide, such return movement signifying that a proper oneorder escapement of the carriage has been effected. If desired an additional spring means can be provided connected to slide 191 to bias it rightwardly.

As described at length in Patent No. 3,139,169, after the desired values have been set into the pin carriage 8 through the solenoids 11, a power cycle of the machine is initiated. During this cycle, the racks 13 move to the rear as limited by the set pins 152 of the pin carriage 8, and thereby set the printing mechanism to the corresponding digital values, which are then printed. As further described therein, in the course of the power cycle the various mechanisms are normalized.

The normalizing operations include restoration of the pin carriage to its normal rightmost position of FIG. 3 by swinging bell crank 176 counterclockwise (FIG. 7) whereby pin carriage 8 is returned to rightmost position. Any depressed digit and escapement pins 152 and 173 respectively will be reset upwardly as the carriage is returned by respective wiping plates 251 and 252 (FIGS. 3, 4) having downwardly sloping cam edges positioned to be engaged by the aforesaid pins. It may be noted that although the leftmost edges of the two wiping plates terminate a slight distance to the right of the home positions of the leftmost column of digit pins and es-capement pins, the pins will be cleared by the wiping plates by virtue of the pin carriage being returned a short distance to the right of its home position and then being allowed to return a short distance to the left under the urging of the pin carriage shifting spring 175.

Having been normalized as described above, the machine is now in condition for subsequent line selection and printing operations.

While there has been shown and described a specific preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be appreciated that numerous modifications, variations, and adap tations can be effected by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. It is accordingly intended that this disclosure of a specific embodiment be illustrative only and not limitative of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a data processing machine: a carriage mounted for full steps of shifting movement; said carriage comprising a value selection carriage including an ordinally arranged series of differentially adjustable value selection means whose ordinal spacing is equal to the size of each full step of shifting movement; shift control means for controlling said carriage to partake of said steps of movement; and electrical switching means operated in a given mode of operation only if said carriage actually shifts a full step of movement.

2. The combination according to claim 1: wherein said switching means is operated in at least a portion of said given mode of operation by said shifting movement of said carriage.

3. The combination according to claim 2: including means operable to control operation of said switching means, said control means being operated by movement of said carriage.

4. The combination according to claim 2: wherein said electrical switching means comprises an electrical switch adjustable to first and second conditions; and wherein said given mode of operation comprises adjustment of said switch from one to the other of said conditions and back to said one condition.

5. The combination according to claim 4: wherein said shift control means comprises stop means for limiting the shifting movement of said carriage to said full step of movement, said stop means including a stop member movable by said carriage, said stop member being effective to control said switch to operate in said given mode of operation.

6. The combination according to claim 5: wherein said stop member comprises a reciprocatory slide.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,020,664 11/1935 Sundstrand 235-6049 2,330,660 9/1943 Anderson 23560.49 2,536,955 l/l95l Palmer et al.

2,824,688 2/1958 Mehan.

2,917,231 12/1959 Stansell 235 3,010,653 11/1961 Canepa.

3,017,080 1/1962 Schwend 23561 RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner. LEO SMILOW, LOUIS CAPOZI, Examiners. 

1. IN A DATA PROCESSING MACHINE: A CARRIAGE MOUNTED FOR FULL STEPS OF SHIFTING MOVEMENT; SAID CARRIAGE COMPRISING A VALUE SELECTION CARRIAGE INCLUDING AN ORIDINALLY ARRANGED SERIES OF DIFFERENTIALLY ADJUSTABLE VALUE SELECTION MEANS WHOSE ORDINAL SPACING IS EQUAL TO THE SIZE OF EACH FULL STEP OF SHIFTING MOVEMENT; SHIFT CONTROL MEANS FOR CONTROLLING SAID CARRIAGE TO PARTAKE OF SAID STEPS OF MOVEMENT; AND ELECTRICAL SWITCHING MEANS OPERATED IN A GIVEN MODE OF OPERATION ONLY IF SAID CARRIAGE ACTUALLY SHIFTS A FULL STEP OF MOVEMENT. 